A New Healthy, Gluten Free Recipe

I've been trying to stay away from gluten to see if I'm allergic to it. I hope I'm not, but I've been trying new recipes, and all of them have turned out very well. I've tried two of my sister's breakfasts meals and they were so good. You can read her post about those two.

Last week I made a blackened chicken with cilantro lime quinoa and an avocado sauce to top it off. I served it with sauteed green beans with garlic and seasonings and a healthy salad. Yummy!!!! And healthy!

 Ingredients

• 2 Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts
• ½ Teaspoon of Paprika
• ¼ Teaspoon of Salt
• ¼ Teaspoon of Pepper
• ¼ Teaspoon of Cayenne Pepper
• ¼ Teaspoon of Onion Powder
• ¼ Teaspoon of Cumin
• 1 Teaspoon of Olive Oil
• 2 Cups of Low Sodium Chicken Stock
• 1 Cup of Quinoa
• Juice and Zest from One Lime
• A Dash of Salt and Pepper
• 2 Tablespoons of Cilantro, chopped

Instructions

1. Combine all the dry seasonings in a small bowl. Mix them together and then season both sides of each chicken breast.
2. Add the teaspoon of olive oil to a large pan or skillet. Heat the olive oil for a minute over medium/high heat. Add the chicken breasts to the pan. Cook for seven minutes on each side with the lid on.
3. Add the chicken stock and quinoa to a medium sauce pan. Bring to a simmer over medium/low heat. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for ten to fifteen minutes with the lid on, until all the stock has been absorbed.
4. After the chicken breasts have cooked all the way through, remove them from the pan and let them rest for seven minutes before slicing them.
5. Add the warm quinoa to a large bowl. Toss in the lime zest, lime juice, salt and pepper, and chopped cilantro. Mix to combine.
6. Serve the sliced chicken breast on top of the quinoa. If you find the blackened seasoning too spicy, you can add a quick and easy avocado cream sauce to cool it down.
7. Just place the flesh from an avocado along with two tablespoons of Greek yogurt in a food processor and puree until smooth.

Here's the link to the recipe: http://www.sarcasticcooking.com/2012/03/15/blackened-chicken-and-cilantro-lime-quinoa/ 

And lastly I have to tell you about our Reagan. He's 12 weeks old and growing like a weed. I love him so much, even when he destroys our bathroom and hallway while I'm working. He definitely has a mind of his own and when he doesn't want to do something we just wont do it. I feel like having a puppy is preparing me for babies.

Here's some photos of him.

Catching Up—Our Puppy and Breakfast Ideas!

Wow, it has been over a month since my last post. I have been slacking big time!  There have been a lot of things going on that have led to my business and lack of time to blog. One of the biggest consumers of my time is our new puppy Shiloh! This is Reagans sister, Corynne already blogged about him - here.

Man—having a puppy is a LOT of work! She runs our lives at the moment, but I absolutely love it. She is a crazy little sweetheart and I laugh so much when her and Dixie play together. We were a little worried about getting a 2nd dog (especially a puppy) since Dixie is a little special. She is very skiddish and not very playful, but they are doing great and Dixie is more playful! Having Dixie has actually helped entertain Shiloh, I cannot imagine having a puppy in the house without another dog, she would be chewing on all our furniture. Here are some cute photos, I cannot get enough of my girls.

In other news, Nick and I took a trip to Nashville to celebrate our 5 Year Anniversary. It was a blast and I will write about it soon.

I wanted to share a few healthy breakfast recipes that I have tried recently. I try to avoid eating a lot of baked goods and especially things with a lot of flour, so I found some good breakfast options on Pinterest that satisfy my craving for baked goods. You should try some of these out:
Banana and Oatmeal Muffins (follow the link) - these are great and I have been eating them all week. I also topped them with a little almond butter for breakfast. YUM!

Ingredients:
2.5 cups old fashioned oats
1 cup plain low fat greek yogurt
2 eggs
1/2 cup honey
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 TBSP ground flax seed
1 tsp vanilla
2 ripe bananas 

Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray tin with non-stick cooking spray or line 12 muffin tins with silicone or foil liners.
2. Place the oats in the food processor and pulse for about 10 seconds.  Add remaining ingredients to the food processor. 

3. Process until everything is mixed together and oats are smooth.
At this point in the process, you can separate the batter into two different bowls, adding dark chocolate chips to one and walnuts to the other (as desired).  

 4. Divide batter among cupcake liners, and bake for 15-20 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.

I also made the Biggest Looser Oatmeal Pancakes. These were awesome too and you can make extra to heat up for on the go breakfast. One morning I cut up apple slices and added some almond butter. 

Biggest Looser Oatmeal Pancakes

Ingredients:

6 egg whites

1 cup rolled oats, dry

1 cup cottage cheese

2 teaspoons sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon vanilla

Instructions:

In a blender, blend all ingredients until smooth. Heat a griddle or large non-stick skillet over medium-low heat. Spray with non-stick cooking spray. For each pancake pour 1/4 cup of batter onto griddle. Flip when they start to bubble. Cook until golden brown. Repeat with remaining batches, spraying the griddle as needed. Makes about 10 pancakes.

Number of Servings: 3

Nutritional Info Per Serving:

181 Calories, 2.7g Fat, 10mg Cholesterol, 361mg Sodium, 20g Carbs, 2.8g Fiber

And I have to end with more doggy pictures. 

Until next time—
Courtney

The Joy of Living in Montana

One of the not so good things about living in Montana is all the deer that LOVE to cross the highway. I think You know where I'm going with this.....
Last Friday Chet and I were on our way to Great Falls for Chet's guard drill weekend and we were five hours behind because our car was in the shop. We had Reagan in the back seat sleeping and we were about 75 minutes away from home on a two lane highway, it was pitch black and all of a sudden a deer comes running across the highway and we hit it dead on. It came out of nowhere and thankfully when Chet slammed on our brakes we didn't slide off the highway but it actually helped the impact from hitting the deer. We immediately pulled off and looked at our car. We were fine and so was Reagan, thankfully. The deer.....not so much. But the front of our car was pretty destroyed. So we turned around, went home and ended up not going to great falls, which was a very smart decision because the collision company looked under the hood of our car yesterday and there is quite a bit of damage on the inside. We do have insurance and will, hopefully, only have to pay a deductible. Now we have a tiny little rental car that doesn't work too well in the winter. Hopefully we will get a bigger car tomorrow because its been snowing a lot up here.
The positives out-way the negatives of living in Montana. But hitting a dear and having car issues is not fun at all. But on a positive note, at least we weren't hurt and our Reagan is okay.
So if you ever come to Montana drive slow and watch out for those deer that love to get on the highway.

My brother.....A Firefighter

I'm a VERY proud sister of my brother, Christian Stephenson. He started the fire academy yesterday. Christian is a go-getter, determined, hard worker and puts his 100% effort into everything. He has become such an amazing man of God and it brings me so much joy. He has a strong relationship with Jesus, an awesome girlfriend, and loves his family.  He finished his AS in firefighting and has been an EMT for a Year. He started applying to different places for the fire academy and the station in Richardson, Texas called him. He flew out there and took a test and they called him back to come take the physical test, and several other tests. He made it to the two interviews and he said they went great. He flew back to California and while he was visiting Texas for Christmas they called him back and he made it in! He was only one of twelve men who made it to the academy, a 2% chance of making it and my brother, Christian Stephenson, did it!!!!

I'm so very proud of him! He started the firefighter academy yesterday and goes for 18 weeks. I pray I'll be able to go to his graduation! 

My brother is now a resident of Texas and soon to be firefighter.